Just A Mask
by GhostDog401
Summary: Bart stared down at his reflection in the Allen's counter top; this wasn't who he really this person staring back at him wasn't him. It was a mask. This person was a character he was playing. Takes place AFTER Bloodlines, lots of Bart angst and we have Barry in there to make him feel better NO SLASH! Just Father Son type stuff :D


**Just a Mask  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Family, Angst  
Characters: Impulse/Bart Allen, Flash/Barry Allen, Iris West-Allen  
Pairings: Mentions of Barry/Iris and Wally/Artemis**

**Dedicated to Inscriber, without her this story never would've been posted (no seriously I was going to delete it or let it sit and rot on my computer, until she told me it was a good story) :D :D**

Bart stared down at his reflection in the Allen's counter top; this wasn't who he really this person staring back at him wasn't him.

It was a mask.

This person was a character he was playing.

Where he had come from he wasn't the outgoing, impulsive, person these people knew. Where he came from he was serious, he was scared, worried that one day he would wake up and the rest of the world would be gone, covered in grey and black ashes and rubble like Happy Harbor, like so many other unlucky homes.

"_Does this look like a future worth returning to?" _That's what he had asked Neutron, no he was Nathaniel now, Neutron was gone, Neutron was dead; he no longer existed. All that was left of Neutron was the pale scared man, Nathaniel, who had no idea what was going on.

"_Better to crash the mode."_

He had told Beast Boy that, the phrase had been lost on the young teen, but it meant so much, had so much hidden meaning.

Mode, crash, the meat, the words were lost to the people of this time, but their true meanings still rang through his head.

Bart shook his head, it was over, he didn't need to worry about that anymore, the world, his timeline, they had both been saved, and yet he didn't feel any different.

He felt like he would live to see the destruction of his home, the death of his Grandpa, the death of everyone he loved and cared about, that something would happen and he wouldn't be able to stop it.

_"I've always wanted to do this."_

It hadn't been a lie, he had always wanted to meet his Grandpa, always wanted to hug him, to feel safe in a new pair of arms.

_"Curing me and saving Flash's life, well that's only the beginning." _

Bart knew this.

Sighing Bart rested his head on his arms and wished that he could warn everyone, tell them of the horrors to come, the horrors he had witnessed, but he couldn't, he had promised Neu—Nathaniel he wouldn't.

"You still awake champ?" A voice broke the silence hanging around him and looked up to see his Grandpa standing over him.

Bart gave him a no duh look, rolling his eyes as the older speedster chuckled.

"Right stupid question," Barry pulled up a chair and sat down next to Bart. "So what's bugging you?"

Bart looked back down at the counter, "Stuff."

Barry arched an eyebrow, "is this about being stuck in the past."

Bart shrugged, "I guess maybe…a little…." The newly named hero sighed and sunk down into his seat. It was partially true, he wanted to see if he had changed anything and all he could do was wait.

As a speedster he hated waiting and he would have to wait forty years before he found out if he had changed his future or not.

"We can try and get you back, we have four different types of aliens and some of the best minds you can find, I'm sure we can—"

"No!" Bart said panicky and Barry jumped.

"No? Don't you want to go home?"

The small teenager shook slightly as he remembered his _home, _the rubble, the fire, the smoke, the panic, the pain.

"No," He whispered. "Back there I was totally feeling the mode, not cool."

He could see that Barry was confused by his statement, but the blond man said nothing instead he looked down at the counter top with the young teen.

"I _was _supposed to die back there wasn't I?"

Bart winced, looking up at his Grandpa for a moment before back down at his hands and nodding yes.

Barry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "What happened after I…" He trailed off unsure of how to ask the question. After all how do you ask someone what happened after you died, when you hadn't really died?

Bart shook slightly, he had told everyone he had been a horrible history student, it had been a lie, another part of the character he played.

In truth he studied history vigilantly sucking up every piece of info he could, he knew exactly what had happened when Barry had died.

It's when the pain started, when the mode began to take over.

Gulping he looked up at his Grandpa, green eyes meeting green, "Wally…Wally went nuts, it….it was like something in him snapped. He took up the title of Flash for a while, but he was never the same, you dying was too much for him." Bart sighed and looked out the window over the kitchen, watching the stars dance in the sky, for once they were tinted grey with smoke.

"I wasn't born yet, obviously, but I read about it after all what kid doesn't want to know about his super powered Grandpa?" Bart laughed dryly before continuing. "Wally…..Wally he died a little over a year later from a fire, outside of costume."

He noticed out of the corner of his eye as Barry winced, paling slightly, imagines of the dead red head flashing through his mind.

"He was going to marry her you know," Bart stared over at his Grandpa.

"Who?"

"That blond girl that came over, Artemis right? They found him clutching a ring half melted from fire, inside was her name, he even had tickets to Paris for their honeymoon in his coat pocket."

Bart sighed and curled up in a ball on his stool.

"Artemis never married she died from a drunk driver, Jay went shortly after, followed by Joan, soon the only people really left was Iris and my dad and Aunt Dawn." Bart felt tears come to his eyes as he remembered his dad. "Eventually I was born, everything was perfect for me, I had no ideas of the horrors I was about to face. The day that the black snow fell from the sky was the day that everything changed."

Bart was shaking now, vibrating quickly tears streaming down his face, "I watched them all die. Mount Justice went up in smoke everyone on the Team died in that explosion, my Aunt and dad died trying to get them out. Grandma followed shortly after due to the smoke, I was alone."

Bart sobbed, "At ten years old I was alone."

"Bart I'm sorry I—"

"But it's okay now I fixed it!" Bart exclaimed, pulling back on his mask, falling back into Impulse's shoes and leaving orphanage Bart Allen behind. "Everything's totally crash." A smile spread across his face and Barry quickly forgot the boy had been crying at all.

"Bart you know you have a home here right?"

The small brown haired boy frowned before smiling again, "Ya I guess so."

Barry smiled and ruffled his hair, "well come on then champ let's get you back to bed."

"Hey Grandpa?" Bart yawned, brushing a few stray tears away from his face.

"Ya Bart?"

"I love you."

"I love you too Bart," it was just a simple sentence, no more than five words and yet Bart found them comforting and reassuring.

To have the familiar words echo through his ears again, outside of a dream, to know that someone cared for him again.

Smiling Bart walked up the stairs, Grandma had made it very clear that if he ran in the house she would personally glue him to the floor, and collapsed into his new bed.

Barry smiled and walked slowly up the stairs into his and Iris's room, lying in bed softly.

"So what happened?" Iris asked sleepily.

Barry for a split second thought about telling her everything, before he shook his head and with a smile simply said, "No spoilers." Before allowing sleep to over take him.

**So what did you guys think?**

**I loved Bloodlines! I watched it three times in a ROW! XD **

**Impulse instantly made my favorites list, somewhere up there with Blue Beetle, and I love all the hidden angst he has :D :D :D**

**I still like Wally better, and he's by far my favorite, but BART ROCKS!**

**Also hopefully no one else thought this, but when I typed black snow, all I could think of was Avatar: The Last Airbender XD **

**Anyways, please review!**


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